O Poder do Mito Episódio 03- Os Primeiros Contadores de Histórias

00:56:49
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HzueORSqUs

Sintesi

TLDREste vídeo explora a relación entre os humanos e os animais a través das mitoloxías e rituais das sociedades primitivas. Nestes grupos, os animais eran vistos como seres sagrados, e a súa morte era respectada mediante diversos rituais que buscaban honrar a súa existencia e asegurar a súa continuidade. A conversa introduce a Joseph Campbell, un estudoso das mitoloxías, quen reflexiona sobre como estas historias e rituais servían para conectar a mente humana co corpo, guiando aos individuos a través de transformacións vitais e para celebrar a vida e a morte. A falta de mitoloxías na sociedade moderna está a afectar negativamente aos mozos, xa que lles falta a orientación proporcionada por estas historias e rituales, que axudaban a forxar a identidade e a conexión co mundo. Campbell subliña a importancia de entender e preservar estas tradicións para manter un sentido de continuidade cultural e espiritual.

Punti di forza

  • 🐻 Historias primitivas conectan co espiritualidade e a natureza.
  • ✨ As mitoloxías son guías para a vida espiritual.
  • 🦌 O respecto polos animais era fundamental en culturas antigas.
  • 🌌 A falta de rituais está a afectar negativamente aos mozos de hoxe.
  • 🔮 Os xamanes eran guías espirituais que conectaban co mundo invisible.
  • 🌱 Os mitos e rituais axudaban á transición de neno a adulto.
  • 🕊️ A relación entre humanos e animais é sagrada e simbiótica.
  • 🌄 As pinturas en cuevas son expresións artísticas de conexión espiritual.
  • 📖 As mitoloxías evolucionan co ambiente e a cultura.
  • ❗ Os rituais modernos están a perder o seu significado profundo.

Linea temporale

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    A narración refírese á conexión entre os animais e os seres humanos, discutindo como a relación mudou ao longo do tempo. Menciona que os humanos xa non están en contacto directo coas bestas salvaxes, senón que conviven con outros humanos, competindo por recursos. Refírese á historia evolutiva e a importancia dos animais na formación dos nosos corpos e mentes.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:10:00

    Os recordos dos nosos antepasados cazadores, que dependeron da natureza, aínda están presentes en nós. Esta conexión pódese despertar mediante a natureza e as pinturas en cuevas. A narrativa explora a escura experiencia interna dos xamáns e o simbolismo das prácticas rituales nas culturas primordiais, subliñando a conexión entre a vida e a morte.

  • 00:10:00 - 00:15:00

    A arte rupestre dos nosos ancestros captura a relación entre os cazadores e a natureza, mostrando como os cazadores contaban historias e realizaban rituais en honra aos animais que sacrificaban. Joseph Campbell, especializado en mitos, expón que estes relatos non eran só entretemento, senón guías poderosas para a vida espiritual.

  • 00:15:00 - 00:20:00

    Campbell compartiu a súa perspectiva sobre como os mitos axudan a harmonizar a mente e o corpo. A transición da infancia á madurez require autoconfianza, e os mitos facilitan esta adaptación ao aceptar a natureza, actuando como mensaxes dunha experiencia compartida anteriormente.

  • 00:20:00 - 00:25:00

    O proceso de envelhecimento presenta o desafío de conectar a conciencia coa realidade do corpo decaente, e Campbell comparte como os mitos lle axudaron a aceptar este proceso, destacando a importancia de identificar a esencia eterna detrás do corporal. Menciona o uso de mitos como guías espirituais na vida dos xente.

  • 00:25:00 - 00:30:00

    A idea de que o mito e a morte son íntimamente interrelacionados é discutida, explicando como os primeiros seres humanos comezaron a pensar sobre a vida e a morte a través de prácticas funerarias e rituales de sepultación, mostrando un paso primitivo cara á espiritualidade.

  • 00:30:00 - 00:35:00

    O troco das prácticas de sepultación suxire unha conciencia sobre a vida despois da morte, subliñando a transición entre o visible e o invisible, onde o mito juega un papel importante en comprender esta dualidade existencial.

  • 00:35:00 - 00:40:00

    Refírese á conexión dos humanos co mundo animal, onde os cazadores establecen un pacto cos animais a través de rituais, mostrando respectoun a vida dos animais, que se ven como mensaxeiros do poder divino. A morte animal ten, por tanto, un carácter sagrado, reclamando a responsabilidade do cazador.

  • 00:40:00 - 00:45:00

    Examinan as cerimonias e rituais como elementos fundamentais para expresar gratitude aos animais que proporcionan alimento, resaltando a interdependencia entre as especies e enfatizando a importancia do ritual na vida dos cazadores primitivos para rendir homenaxe á sacrificio dos animais.

  • 00:45:00 - 00:50:00

    A narración engade un relato sobre a vida dos nativos americanos e a súa relación cos búfalos, subliñando que a matanza de búfalos por colonos brancos foi un sacrilexio que destruiu tanto a vida animal como a espiritualidade da comunidade indígena.

  • 00:50:00 - 00:56:49

    Discutindo sobre a arte rupestre, Campbell describe a poderosa conexión emocional que os humanos senten ao ver as pinturas de animais nas grutas, reflexionando sobre a importancia destes lugares como lugares de ritual e a experiencia transcendente asociada con eles.

Mostra di più

Mappa mentale

Video Domande e Risposte

  • Que papel xoga a mitoloxía na vida humana?

    A mitoloxía serve como unha guía espiritual e cultural, axudando á humanidade a conectarse co seu pasado e a comprender a súa conexión coa natureza.

  • Como se relacionaban os antigos pobos cos animais?

    Os antigos pobos consideraban aos animais como seres sagrados e realizaban rituais para honrar e agradecer aos animais que proporcionaban alimento.

  • Que pasou co significado dos rituais na sociedade moderna?

    Os rituais perderon a súa profundidade espiritual e agora son a miúdo reducidos a meras formalidades, sen a conexión orixinal co que representan.

  • Cales son os efectos da falta de mitoloxía nos mozos de hoxe?

    A falta de mitoloxía contribúe á confusión e ao comportamento antisocial, xa que moitos mozos carecen de orientación e rituais que lles axuden a comprender o seu papel na sociedade.

  • Quen eran os xamanes na antigüidade?

    Os xamanes eran portadores de sabedoría espiritual que vivían experiencias trascendentes e ajudaban á súa comunidade a conectar co mundo espiritual.

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Sottotitoli
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Scorrimento automatico:
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    the animal in voice of the unseen power
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    no longer serve as in primeval times to
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    teach and to guide mankind
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    [Music]
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    bears lions elephants and gazelles and
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    cages neh zoos
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    man is no longer the newcomer in a world
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    of unexplored Plains and forests and our
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    immediate neighbors are not wild beasts
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    but other human beings contending for
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    goods and space on a planet that is
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    whirling without end around the fireball
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    of a star neither in body nor in mind to
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    inhabit the world of those hunting races
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    of the Paleolithic millennia to whose
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    lives and life ways we nevertheless owed
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    the very forms of our bodies and
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    structures of our minds
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    [Music]
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    memories of their animal envoy's still
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    must sleep somehow within us for they
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    wake a little in stir when we venture
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    into wilderness they wake in terror to
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    thunder
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    and again they wake with a sense of
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    recognition when we enter any one of
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    those great painted caves
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    [Music]
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    whatever the inward darkness may have
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    been to which the shamans of those caves
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    descended in their trances the same must
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    lie within ourselves nightly visited in
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    sleep
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    [Music]
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    when we look at the Magnificent cave
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    paintings left by our primal ancestors
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    we realize how the hunters of those
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    early tribes were influenced by their
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    natural surroundings and by their
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    feelings toward the animals they
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    depended on for food religious feelings
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    they told stories to themselves about
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    the animals and about the supernatural
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    world to which the animals seemed to go
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    when they died and the hunters performed
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    rituals of atonement to the departed
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    spirits of the animals hoping to coax
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    them back to be sacrificed again Joseph
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    Campbell devoted his life to the study
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    of these myths and rituals for him
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    mythic stories were not simply
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    entertaining tales to be told for
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    amusement around ancient campfires they
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    were powerful guides to the life of the
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    Spirit Campbell's Odyssey as scholar and
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    teacher led him from the exhibits at the
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    American Museum of Natural History which
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    impressed him as a boy to cultures all
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    over the world in his words whether we
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    listened with aloof amusement to the
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    mumbo-jumbo of some witch doctor of the
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    Congo or read with cultivated rapture
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    translations from sonnets of loud say or
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    now and again crack the hard nutshell of
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    an argument of Thomas Aquinas our catch
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    suddenly the shining meaning of a
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    bizarre Eskimo fairy tale we're hearing
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    echoes of the first story in this hour
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    one of the many I taped with Joseph
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    Campbell during the last two years of
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    his life we talked about our
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    relationship to the first stories and to
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    the people who told them like them we to
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    perform rituals to enact what we believe
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    about the world beyond this one and we
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    try to bring our mind into harmony with
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    questions of immortality and our body
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    with its destiny of death
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    what do you think our souls Oh two
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    ancient myths well the ancient myths
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    were designed to put the mind the mental
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    system into a cord with this body system
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    with this inheritance or harming the
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    body to harmonize the mind can ramble
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    off in strange ways and want things that
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    the body does not want and the myths and
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    rights were means to put the mind in
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    accord with the body and the way of life
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    in accord with the way that nature
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    dictates so in a way these old stories
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    live in us they do indeed and the stages
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    of a human development are the same
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    today as they were in the ancient times
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    and the problem of a child brought up in
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    a world of discipline of obedience and
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    of his dependency on others has to be
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    transcended when one comes to maturity
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    so that you are living now not in
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    dependency but with self responsible
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    Authority and the problem of the
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    transition from childhood to maturity
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    and then from maturity and full capacity
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    to losing those powers and acquiescing
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    in the natural course of you might say
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    the autumn time of life and the passage
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    away myths are there to help us go with
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    it
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    accept nature's way and not hold to
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    something else
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    the stories are sort of to me like
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    messages in a bottle from shore someone
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    else is visited first yes and you're
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    visiting those shores now and these
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    myths tell me how others have made the
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    passage and how I can make them and and
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    also what the beauties are of the way I
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    feel this now moving into my own last
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    year's you know the the myths help me to
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    go with it what kind of myth give me a
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    one that has actually helped you
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    well the tradition in India for instance
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    of actually changing your whole way of
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    dress even changing your name as you
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    pass from one stage to another when I
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    retired from teaching I knew that I had
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    to create a new life a new way of life
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    and I changed my manner of thinking
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    about my life just in terms of that
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    notion of moving out of the sphere of
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    achievement into the sphere of enjoyment
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    and appreciation and relaxing into the
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    wonder of it all and then there is that
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    final passage through the dark gate that
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    well that's no problem at all
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    the problem in middle life when the body
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    has reached its climax of power and
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    begins to lose it is to identify
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    yourself not with the body which is
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    falling away but with the consciousness
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    of which it is a vehicle and when you
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    can do that and this is something I
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    learned from my myths
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    what am I am I the the bulb that carries
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    the light or am I the light of which the
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    bulb is a vehicle and this body is a
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    vehicle of consciousness and if you can
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    identify with the consciousness you can
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    watch this thing go like an old car
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    there goes the fender there goes this
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    but that's expectable you know and then
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    gradually the whole thing drops off and
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    consciousness rejoins consciousness I
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    mean that's it's no longer in this
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    particular environment and the myths the
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    stories have have brought this
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    consciousness well I love with these
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    myths and they tell me to do this all
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    the time and this is the problem which
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    can be then metaphorically understood as
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    identifying with the Christ in you and
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    the Christ in you doesn't die the Christ
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    in you survives death and resurrects or
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    it can be with Shiva
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    she Ruffin I
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    Seba and this is the great meditation of
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    the of the the Yogi's in the Himalayas
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    and one doesn't have even to have a
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    metaphorical image like that if one has
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    a mind that's willing to just relax and
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    identify itself with that which moves it
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    you say that the image of death is the
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    beginning of mythology
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    what do you mean how does that well all
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    I can say to that is that the earliest
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    evidence we have of anything like
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    mythological thinking is associated with
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    grave burials and they suggest what that
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    men women saw life and then they didn't
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    see it and they wondered about it it
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    must have been I mean one has only to
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    you know imagine what one's own
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    experience would be the person was alive
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    and warmed before you and talking to you
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    he's now lying there getting cold
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    beginning to rot something was there
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    that isn't there and where is it now
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    animals have this experience certainly
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    of their companions dying and so forth
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    but there's no evidence that they've had
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    any further thoughts about it also
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    before the time of Neanderthal man it's
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    in his period that the first barriers
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    appeared that of which we have evidence
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    the people were dying and they're just
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    thrown away but here there's a concern
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    have you ever visited any of these
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    burial sites I've been to the Moose ta
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    that was one of the earliest burial
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    caves that were found and you find there
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    what they buried with the data yes these
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    grave burials with grave gear that is to
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    say weapons and sacrifices round about
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    certainly suggest the idea of they
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    continued life beyond the
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    visible one first one there was
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    discovered person was put down is
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    resting so asleep a young boy with the
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    beautiful hand acts beside him now at
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    the same time we have evidence of
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    shrines devoted to animals that have
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    been killed the shrine specifically are
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    in the Alps very high caves and they are
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    of cave bear skulls and there is one
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    very interesting one with the long bones
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    of the cave bear in the cave s ja what
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    does it say to me burials my friend has
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    died and he survives the animals that
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    I've killed must also survive I must
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    make some kind of atonement relationship
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    to them the indication is of the notion
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    of a plane of being that's behind the
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    visible plane and which is somehow
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    supportive of the visible one to which
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    we have to relate I would say that's the
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    basic theme of all mythology that there
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    is a world that there is a visible plant
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    an invisible plane supporting the
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    visible one and whether it is thought of
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    as a world or simply as the energy that
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    differs from time and time and place to
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    place what we don't know supports what
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    we do know that's right
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    the basic hunting myth I would say is of
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    a kind of covenant between the animal
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    world and the human world where the
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    animal gives its life willingly they are
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    regarded generally as willing victims
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    with the understanding that their life
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    which transcends their physical entity
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    there will be returned to the soil or to
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    the mother through some ritual of
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    restoration and visible rituals for
  • 00:12:55
    instance and the principle divinities
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    are associated with the main hunting
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    animal the animal who is the master
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    animal and sends that flux to be killed
  • 00:13:06
    you know the Indians of the American
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    Plains was the Buffalo you go to the
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    north west coast
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    it's the salmon the great festivals have
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    to do with the run of salmon coming in
  • 00:13:19
    when you go to South Africa the eland
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    the big magnificent antelope is the
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    principal animal to the Bushman for
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    example and the principal animal is the
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    food so there there grew up between
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    human beings and animals a bonding as
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    you say which required one to be
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    consumed by the other that's the way
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    life is do you think this troubled early
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    that's why you have the rights because
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    it did trouble what kind of rights
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    rituals of appeasement to the animals of
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    thanks to the animal very interesting
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    aspect here is the identity of the
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    hunter with the animal you mean after
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    the animal has been killed the hunter
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    then has to fulfill certain rights in
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    the kind of party Sebastiaan mystique a
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    mystic participation with the animals
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    death he has brought about and whose
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    meat is to become his life
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    so the tilling is not simply slaughtered
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    any right it's a ritual act it's a
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    recognition of your dependency and of
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    the voluntary giving of this food to you
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    by the animal commence giving it it's a
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    beautiful thing it trans life into it
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    and mythological experience the hut
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    becomes what it becomes a ritual the
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    hunt is ritual expressing a hope of
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    Resurrection that the animal was food
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    and you needed the animal to return and
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    some kind of respect for the animal that
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    was killed that's the thing that gets me
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    all the time in this hunting ceremonial
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    system respect the respect for the
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    animal and more than respect I mean that
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    animal becomes a messenger of divine
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    power you see and you wind up as the
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    hunter killing the messenger me but God
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    what does this do could does it does it
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    cause guilt does it cause guiltless
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    waters wiped out by the myth it is
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    there's not a personal act you are
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    performing the work of nature for
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    example in Japan and Hokkaido dogs in
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    Japan among the the Ainu people whose
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    principal mountain deity is the bear
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    when it is killed there was a ceremony
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    of feeding the bear a feast of its own
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    flesh as though he were present and he
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    is present he served his own meat for
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    dinner and there's a conversation
  • 00:15:59
    between the mountain god the bear and
  • 00:16:01
    the people they say if you will give us
  • 00:16:05
    the privilege of entertaining you again
  • 00:16:08
    we'll give you the privilege of another
  • 00:16:11
    bear sacrifice
  • 00:16:15
    if the cave bear were not appeased the
  • 00:16:18
    animals wouldn't appear and these
  • 00:16:21
    primitive hunters would starve to death
  • 00:16:22
    so they began to perceive some kind of
  • 00:16:25
    power in which they were dependent
  • 00:16:27
    greater than their own and that's the
  • 00:16:29
    power of the animal master now when we
  • 00:16:32
    sit down to meal we thank God you know
  • 00:16:37
    our idea of God for having given us this
  • 00:16:41
    these people thanked the animal and is
  • 00:16:44
    this the first evidence we have of an
  • 00:16:47
    act of worship yes of the power superior
  • 00:16:49
    demand yeah and and the animal was
  • 00:16:52
    superior because the animal provided
  • 00:16:53
    food well now in contrast to our
  • 00:16:56
    relationship to animals so we see
  • 00:16:58
    animals as a lower form of life and then
  • 00:17:00
    the Bible we're told you know where the
  • 00:17:02
    Masters and so forth are only hunting
  • 00:17:05
    people don't have that relationship to
  • 00:17:06
    the animal the animal is in many ways
  • 00:17:08
    superior he has powers that the human
  • 00:17:13
    being doesn't have and then certain
  • 00:17:15
    animals take on a persona don't they the
  • 00:17:17
    Buffalo the Raven all the eagle very
  • 00:17:20
    strongly well I was up in the northwest
  • 00:17:23
    coast back in 1932 there were wonderful
  • 00:17:26
    trip and the Indians said along the way
  • 00:17:30
    we're still having totem poles the
  • 00:17:32
    villagers had new totem poles still and
  • 00:17:36
    there we saw the Ravens and we saw the
  • 00:17:39
    Eagles and we saw the animals that
  • 00:17:41
    played roles in the myths and they had
  • 00:17:44
    the character the quality of these
  • 00:17:46
    animals there's a very intimate
  • 00:17:48
    knowledge and and friendly neighborly
  • 00:17:52
    relationship to these creatures and then
  • 00:17:54
    they killed some of them you see
  • 00:18:00
    the animal had something to do with the
  • 00:18:03
    shaping of the myths of those people
  • 00:18:05
    just as the Buffalo for the Indians of
  • 00:18:07
    the plains pregnant enormous role
  • 00:18:11
    they're the ones that bring the tobacco
  • 00:18:14
    of gift the mystical pipe and all this
  • 00:18:17
    kind of thing it comes from a bottle and
  • 00:18:21
    when the animal becomes the giver of
  • 00:18:24
    ritual and so forth
  • 00:18:25
    they do ask the animal for advice and
  • 00:18:28
    the animal becomes the model for how to
  • 00:18:29
    live you remember the story of the
  • 00:18:32
    buffalos wife that's a basic legend of
  • 00:18:36
    the of the Blackfoot tribe and is the
  • 00:18:39
    origin legend of their Buffalo dance
  • 00:18:42
    rituals which had by which they invoked
  • 00:18:46
    the cooperation of the animals in this
  • 00:18:50
    play of life wouldn't you realize the
  • 00:18:55
    size of some of these tribal groups to
  • 00:18:57
    feed them require a good deal of meat
  • 00:19:00
    and one way of acquiring meat for the
  • 00:19:04
    winter would be to drive a buffalo herd
  • 00:19:07
    to Stampede it over a rocks cliff
  • 00:19:12
    well this story is of a Blackfoot tribe
  • 00:19:15
    long long ago and they couldn't get the
  • 00:19:20
    Buffalo to go over the cliff the Buffalo
  • 00:19:23
    would approach the cliff and then turn
  • 00:19:25
    the side so it looked as though they
  • 00:19:26
    weren't going to have any meat for that
  • 00:19:28
    winter well the daughter of one of the
  • 00:19:32
    houses getting up early in the morning
  • 00:19:34
    to draw the water for the family and so
  • 00:19:36
    forth looks up and they're right above
  • 00:19:39
    the cliff where the Buffalo and she said
  • 00:19:43
    oh if you only come over I'd marry one
  • 00:19:46
    of you and to her surprise they all
  • 00:19:49
    began coming over that was surprise
  • 00:19:52
    number one surprise number two was when
  • 00:19:55
    one of the old Buffalo was the shaman of
  • 00:19:57
    the herd comes and says all right girlie
  • 00:20:00
    off we go oh no she says oh yes he said
  • 00:20:04
    you've made your promise we've kept our
  • 00:20:06
    side of the bargain
  • 00:20:07
    look at all my relatives here dead off
  • 00:20:10
    we go well the family gets up in the
  • 00:20:13
    morning and in the parameter where's
  • 00:20:14
    Minnie ha ha you know but the father you
  • 00:20:17
    know how Indians are he looked around he
  • 00:20:19
    said she's run off with a buffalo he
  • 00:20:22
    could see about the footsteps so he says
  • 00:20:25
    I'm gonna get her back so boots on is
  • 00:20:29
    walking market moccasins over an hour
  • 00:20:31
    and so forth and goes out over the
  • 00:20:33
    plains he's gone quite a distance when
  • 00:20:36
    he he feels
  • 00:20:39
    he'd better sit down a rest and he comes
  • 00:20:41
    to a place that's called a Buffalo
  • 00:20:42
    wallow where the Buffalo like to come
  • 00:20:44
    and roll around and get the lice off and
  • 00:20:46
    roll around in the mud so he sits down
  • 00:20:49
    there and is thinking what he should do
  • 00:20:52
    now when along comes a magpie that's a
  • 00:20:54
    beautiful flashing bird and it's one of
  • 00:20:57
    those clever birds that has shamanic
  • 00:20:59
    qualities magical magical and the man
  • 00:21:03
    says to him Oh beautiful Bird said my
  • 00:21:06
    daughter ran away with a buffalo have
  • 00:21:09
    you seen when you hunt around see if you
  • 00:21:12
    can find her out on the plane somewhere
  • 00:21:13
    and the magpie says well there's a
  • 00:21:16
    lovely girl with the Buffaloes right now
  • 00:21:18
    over there just a bit away well they
  • 00:21:21
    said the man would you go tell her there
  • 00:21:23
    daddy's here her father's here at the
  • 00:21:25
    Buffalo wallow magpie flies over and the
  • 00:21:30
    girl is there among the Buffalo they
  • 00:21:32
    were all asleep I don't know what she's
  • 00:21:35
    doing
  • 00:21:36
    living or something's kind and the
  • 00:21:38
    magpie comes over roaster and he says
  • 00:21:41
    your father's over at a Wawa
  • 00:21:43
    waiting for you oh this is terrible this
  • 00:21:47
    is dangerous I mean these Buffalo would
  • 00:21:49
    kill us you tell him to wait I'll be
  • 00:21:51
    over I'll try to break this out
  • 00:21:53
    so her Buffalo husbands behind her and
  • 00:21:56
    he wakes up and takes off a horn he says
  • 00:22:00
    go to the wallow and get me a drink
  • 00:22:02
    so she takes the horn and goes over and
  • 00:22:06
    there's her father he graduate by the
  • 00:22:07
    army says come see no no no this is real
  • 00:22:10
    danger the whole herd then we right
  • 00:22:11
    after his I have to wait this thing on
  • 00:22:13
    now let me just go back so she gets the
  • 00:22:16
    water and goes back and he see fie fo
  • 00:22:19
    fum I smell the blood of an Indian you
  • 00:22:21
    know that sort of thing and she says no
  • 00:22:23
    nothing of the kind he says yes indeed
  • 00:22:26
    so he gives a buffalo bellow and they
  • 00:22:29
    all get up they all do a slow buffalo
  • 00:22:32
    dance with their tails race and they go
  • 00:22:34
    over they trample that poor man to death
  • 00:22:37
    so that he disappears entirely he's just
  • 00:22:40
    all broken up to pieces in Hong Kong
  • 00:22:42
    that girls crying and her Buffalo
  • 00:22:47
    husband says so you're crying this is my
  • 00:22:51
    daddy you said yeah but what about us
  • 00:22:54
    they're our children wives our parents
  • 00:22:58
    and you crying about your daddy well
  • 00:23:04
    apparently he was a kind of sympathetic
  • 00:23:06
    compassionate buffalo and he said well
  • 00:23:09
    I'll tell you if you can bring your
  • 00:23:10
    daddy back to life again
  • 00:23:12
    I'll let you go
  • 00:23:14
    so she turns to the magpie and says see
  • 00:23:18
    Peck around a little bit to see if you
  • 00:23:20
    can find a bit of daddy and the night
  • 00:23:22
    guy does so and he comes up finally with
  • 00:23:25
    a vertebra just one little bone and
  • 00:23:28
    it'll go says that that's plenty now
  • 00:23:31
    that we put this down on the ground and
  • 00:23:33
    she puts her blanket over it and she
  • 00:23:35
    sings a revivifying song a magical song
  • 00:23:38
    with great power and presently yes
  • 00:23:41
    there's a man under the blanket she
  • 00:23:43
    looks daddy all right but he's not
  • 00:23:45
    breathing yet a few more stanzas of
  • 00:23:49
    whatever the song was and he stands up
  • 00:23:52
    and the Buffalo are amazed they say well
  • 00:23:55
    why don't you do this for us we'll teach
  • 00:24:00
    you now our Buffalo dance and when you
  • 00:24:03
    will have killed our families you do
  • 00:24:06
    this dance and sing this song and we'll
  • 00:24:09
    all be back life again that's the basic
  • 00:24:12
    idea that through the ritual that
  • 00:24:16
    dimension is struck which transcends
  • 00:24:19
    temporality and out of which life comes
  • 00:24:21
    and back into which it goes and it goes
  • 00:24:23
    back to this whole idea of death burial
  • 00:24:26
    and resurrection not only for human
  • 00:24:28
    beings so they're animals too so the
  • 00:24:31
    story of the Buffalo is why that was
  • 00:24:33
    told to confirm the reverence I think
  • 00:24:36
    what happened when the white man came
  • 00:24:39
    and slaughtered this animal of reverence
  • 00:24:41
    that was a sacramental violation I mean
  • 00:24:45
    they in the 80s when the buffalo hunt
  • 00:24:48
    was undertaken and so forth when I was a
  • 00:24:54
    boy whenever we were in for sleigh rides
  • 00:24:56
    we had Buffalo Road buffalo buffalo
  • 00:24:59
    buffalo robes all over the place this
  • 00:25:03
    was a sacred animal Dominion
  • 00:25:06
    these others go out with repeating
  • 00:25:10
    rifles and shoot down the whole hood and
  • 00:25:14
    leave it there but take the skin to sell
  • 00:25:16
    and the bodies left to rot this is a
  • 00:25:20
    sacrilege and it really is a sacrilege
  • 00:25:23
    it turned me it turned the Buffalo from
  • 00:25:26
    a vow to a nip the Indians addressed the
  • 00:25:32
    Buffalo is now an object of reverence
  • 00:25:34
    the Indians addressed life as it now
  • 00:25:36
    I mean trees stones everything else you
  • 00:25:40
    can address anything is that thou and
  • 00:25:42
    you can feel the change in your
  • 00:25:43
    psychology as you do it the ego that
  • 00:25:49
    sees thou is not the same ego that sees
  • 00:25:53
    and it your whole psychology changes
  • 00:25:57
    when you address things isn't it well
  • 00:26:01
    it's when you go to war with the people
  • 00:26:03
    the problem of the newspapers is to turn
  • 00:26:06
    those people into its so that they're
  • 00:26:09
    not douse that was an incredible moment
  • 00:26:12
    in in the evolution of American society
  • 00:26:14
    when the Buffalo was slaughtered that
  • 00:26:16
    was the final exclamation for it behind
  • 00:26:18
    the destruction of the Indian
  • 00:26:19
    civilization because you were destroying
  • 00:26:21
    can you imagine what this experience
  • 00:26:24
    must have been for our people within ten
  • 00:26:27
    years to lose their environment to lose
  • 00:26:32
    their food supply to lose the object of
  • 00:26:36
    the central object of their ritual life
  • 00:26:40
    so it is in your belief that that it was
  • 00:26:46
    in this period of hunting man and woman
  • 00:26:48
    the time of hunting man that the human
  • 00:26:52
    beings began to sense a stirring of the
  • 00:26:55
    mythic imagination the wonder of things
  • 00:26:58
    that they didn't know there is this
  • 00:27:00
    burst of magnificent art and all the
  • 00:27:05
    evidence you need of a mythic
  • 00:27:08
    imagination in full career
  • 00:27:11
    you visited some of the great painted
  • 00:27:14
    caves oh yeah tell me what you remember
  • 00:27:16
    when first you looked upon those well
  • 00:27:19
    you didn't want to leave here you come
  • 00:27:22
    into an enormous chamber like a great
  • 00:27:28
    Cathedral with these animals painted and
  • 00:27:32
    they're painted with the life's light
  • 00:27:34
    the life of a ink on silk in the
  • 00:27:37
    Japanese painting and when you realize
  • 00:27:41
    the darkness is inconceivable we're
  • 00:27:45
    there with electric lights but in a
  • 00:27:47
    couple of instances the concierge the
  • 00:27:49
    man who was showing us through turned
  • 00:27:51
    off the lights and you were never in
  • 00:27:53
    darker darkness in your life it's like a
  • 00:27:55
    I don't know just a complete knockout of
  • 00:27:58
    you don't know where you are whether
  • 00:28:01
    you're looking north south east or west
  • 00:28:03
    all orientation is gone and you're in a
  • 00:28:06
    darkness that never saw the Sun then
  • 00:28:08
    they turn the lights on again you see
  • 00:28:10
    these gloriously painted animals a bull
  • 00:28:13
    that will be twenty feet long and
  • 00:28:17
    painted so that their haunches
  • 00:28:21
    will be represented by a swelling in the
  • 00:28:24
    rock you know they take account of the
  • 00:28:26
    whole thing it's incredible do you ever
  • 00:28:29
    look at these primitive art objects and
  • 00:28:32
    think not of the art but of the man or
  • 00:28:35
    woman standing there painting or
  • 00:28:37
    creating I find that's where I speculate
  • 00:28:40
    oh this is what hits you when you go
  • 00:28:42
    into those caves I can tell you that
  • 00:28:45
    what was in their mind when they were
  • 00:28:47
    doing that and that's not an easy thing
  • 00:28:49
    to do and how did they get up there and
  • 00:28:51
    how did they see anything and what kind
  • 00:28:53
    of light that they have little flashing
  • 00:28:56
    torches throwing flickering things and
  • 00:28:58
    then to get something of that grace and
  • 00:29:00
    perfection and with respect to the
  • 00:29:02
    permanent beauty is this beauty intended
  • 00:29:05
    or is it something that is the natural
  • 00:29:07
    expression of a beautiful spirit you
  • 00:29:11
    know what I mean when you hear a bird
  • 00:29:13
    sing the beauty of the bird song is this
  • 00:29:16
    intentional in what sense is it
  • 00:29:18
    intentional
  • 00:29:19
    but it's the expression of the bird the
  • 00:29:21
    beauty of the bird spirit you might
  • 00:29:23
    almost say and I think that way very
  • 00:29:26
    often about this odd to what degree was
  • 00:29:30
    the intention of the artist what we
  • 00:29:32
    would call aesthetic or in what to what
  • 00:29:34
    degree expressive you know and to what
  • 00:29:37
    degree something that they simply had
  • 00:29:40
    learned to do that way it's it's a data
  • 00:29:44
    point when a spider makes a beautiful
  • 00:29:46
    web the beauty comes out of the spiders
  • 00:29:49
    nature you know it's instinctive beauty
  • 00:29:52
    and how much of the beauty of our own
  • 00:29:54
    lives is of our the beauty of being
  • 00:29:56
    alive and how much of us is conscious
  • 00:30:00
    intentional that's big question you call
  • 00:30:04
    them temple cave why why tipple the
  • 00:30:07
    temple with images and stained glass
  • 00:30:10
    windows cathedrals a landscape of the
  • 00:30:17
    soul you move into a world of spiritual
  • 00:30:20
    images that's what this is when Jean and
  • 00:30:24
    I my wife and I drove down from Paris to
  • 00:30:28
    this part of France we stopped off at
  • 00:30:31
    Chartres Cathedral there is a Cathedral
  • 00:30:35
    when you walk into the Cathedral it's
  • 00:30:37
    the mother womb of your spiritual life
  • 00:30:41
    mother church all the forms around are
  • 00:30:46
    significant of spiritual values and the
  • 00:30:51
    imagery is in anthropomorphic form God
  • 00:30:55
    and Jesus and the Saints and all in
  • 00:30:58
    human form human form then we went down
  • 00:31:01
    the last go the images were in animal
  • 00:31:04
    form the form is secondary
  • 00:31:07
    the message is what's important as a
  • 00:31:09
    message of the cave the message of the
  • 00:31:11
    cave is of a relationship of time to
  • 00:31:17
    eternal powers that is somehow to be
  • 00:31:22
    experienced in that place
  • 00:31:24
    now I've tell you when you're down in
  • 00:31:26
    those caves it's a it's a strange
  • 00:31:29
    transformation of consciousness you have
  • 00:31:31
    you feel this is the the room this is
  • 00:31:36
    the place from which life comes and that
  • 00:31:39
    world up there in the Sun with all those
  • 00:31:41
    that's a secondary world this is primary
  • 00:31:44
    I mean this just overcomes you you had
  • 00:31:46
    that feeling like I had it every time
  • 00:31:48
    now what would these caves used for the
  • 00:31:52
    speculations that are most common of
  • 00:31:56
    scholars interested in this is that they
  • 00:31:58
    had to do with the initiation of boys
  • 00:32:00
    into the hunt you go in there it's
  • 00:32:04
    dangerous it's very dangerous it's
  • 00:32:07
    completely dark it's cold and dank
  • 00:32:10
    you're banging your head on projections
  • 00:32:13
    all the time and it was a place of fear
  • 00:32:15
    and the boys were to overcome all that
  • 00:32:18
    and go into the womb of the earth and
  • 00:32:22
    the shimano whoever it was that would be
  • 00:32:25
    helping you through would not be making
  • 00:32:28
    it easy and then there was a release
  • 00:32:30
    once you got into that vast torch-lit
  • 00:32:32
    chamber down there what was the tribe
  • 00:32:35
    what was the tradition trying to say to
  • 00:32:37
    the boy that is the womb land from which
  • 00:32:40
    all the animals come and the rituals
  • 00:32:43
    down there have to do with the
  • 00:32:45
    generation of a situation that will be
  • 00:32:48
    propitious for the hunt and the boys
  • 00:32:51
    were to learn not only to hunt but how
  • 00:32:54
    to respect the animals and what rituals
  • 00:32:57
    to perform and how in their own lives no
  • 00:33:01
    longer to be little boys but to be men
  • 00:33:04
    because those hunts were very very
  • 00:33:06
    dangerous hunts believe me
  • 00:33:08
    and that these are the original men's
  • 00:33:13
    right sanctuaries where the boys became
  • 00:33:18
    no longer their mother's sons but their
  • 00:33:20
    fathers sons but you wonder what effect
  • 00:33:25
    this had on a or a boy well you can you
  • 00:33:29
    can go through it today actually and in
  • 00:33:31
    cultures that are still having the
  • 00:33:34
    initiations of young boys they give them
  • 00:33:36
    an ordeal a terrifying ordeal that the
  • 00:33:39
    youngster has to survive makes a man who
  • 00:33:42
    do you know what would happen to me as a
  • 00:33:45
    child if I went through one of these
  • 00:33:46
    rites
  • 00:33:47
    that's four well we know what they do in
  • 00:33:48
    Australia and when the boy gets to be
  • 00:33:51
    you know a little bit on governor bull
  • 00:33:57
    one fine day the men come in and then
  • 00:34:01
    they get except for stripes of white
  • 00:34:05
    down that have been stuck on their
  • 00:34:08
    bodies and stripes with their men's
  • 00:34:09
    blood they use their own blood for glues
  • 00:34:11
    gluing this on and they're swinging the
  • 00:34:14
    bull roars which are the voice of the
  • 00:34:16
    spirits and they come as spirits the boy
  • 00:34:20
    will try to take refuge with his mother
  • 00:34:22
    she'll pretend to try to protect him the
  • 00:34:26
    men just take him away mothers no good
  • 00:34:28
    from their nan you see he's no longer a
  • 00:34:31
    little boy he's in the men's group and
  • 00:34:34
    then they put him really serving ordeal
  • 00:34:37
    these are the rights you know a
  • 00:34:39
    circumcision sub incision and the whole
  • 00:34:42
    purpose is to turn him into a member of
  • 00:34:45
    the tribe and a hunter and a hunter
  • 00:34:48
    because that was the way of life yeah
  • 00:34:50
    but most important is to live according
  • 00:34:53
    to the needs and values of that tribe he
  • 00:34:59
    is initiated in a short period of time
  • 00:35:03
    into the whole culture context of his
  • 00:35:06
    people
  • 00:35:08
    [Music]
  • 00:35:10
    so myth relates directly to ceremony and
  • 00:35:14
    tribal ritual and the absence of myth
  • 00:35:17
    can mean the end of ritual a ritual is
  • 00:35:20
    the enactment of a myth by participating
  • 00:35:23
    in a ritual you are participating in a
  • 00:35:26
    myth what does it mean you think two
  • 00:35:29
    young boys today that we've absent these
  • 00:35:31
    myths
  • 00:35:32
    well the confirmation ritual is the
  • 00:35:35
    counterpart today of these rights as a
  • 00:35:41
    little Catholic boy you choose your
  • 00:35:44
    confirmed name the name you're gonna be
  • 00:35:47
    confirmed by it and you go up but
  • 00:35:50
    instead of having them scarify you knock
  • 00:35:54
    your teeth out nor the the bishop gives
  • 00:35:57
    you a mild slap on the cheek it's been
  • 00:35:59
    reduced to that nothing's happened to
  • 00:36:01
    you the the Jewish counterpart is the
  • 00:36:04
    bar mitzvah and whether it works
  • 00:36:08
    actually to effect the psychological
  • 00:36:10
    transformation I suppose will depend on
  • 00:36:12
    the individual case there's no problem
  • 00:36:15
    in these old days the boy came out with
  • 00:36:18
    a different body and he draws through
  • 00:36:21
    something what about what about the
  • 00:36:23
    female I mean it did most of the figures
  • 00:36:25
    in the key in the temple caves or our
  • 00:36:27
    male was there yeah was this a kind of
  • 00:36:30
    secret society for males it wasn't a
  • 00:36:32
    secret society wasn't the boys had to go
  • 00:36:34
    through it now but the we don't know
  • 00:36:37
    exactly what happens with the female and
  • 00:36:40
    in this period because we have very
  • 00:36:42
    little evidence to tell us in primary
  • 00:36:45
    cultures today the girl becomes a woman
  • 00:36:48
    with her first menstruation it happens
  • 00:36:52
    to her I mean nature does it to her and
  • 00:36:55
    so she has undergone the transformation
  • 00:36:58
    and what is her initiation typically it
  • 00:37:03
    is to sit in a little Hut for a certain
  • 00:37:06
    number of days and realized what she is
  • 00:37:10
    how does she do that she said that she's
  • 00:37:14
    now a woman and what is a woman a woman
  • 00:37:19
    is the vehicle of life and life has
  • 00:37:22
    overtaken her as she is a vehicle now of
  • 00:37:25
    life woman's what it's all about the the
  • 00:37:29
    the the giving of birth and the giving
  • 00:37:31
    of nourishment
  • 00:37:32
    she's identical with the earth goddess
  • 00:37:35
    and her powers and she's got to realize
  • 00:37:37
    that about herself the boy does not have
  • 00:37:40
    a happening of that time he has to be
  • 00:37:44
    turned into a man and voluntarily become
  • 00:37:47
    a servant of something greater than
  • 00:37:49
    himself the woman becomes the vehicle of
  • 00:37:53
    nature the man becomes a vehicle of the
  • 00:37:55
    society and the social order and the
  • 00:37:57
    social purpose so what happens when a
  • 00:38:00
    society no longer embraces powerful
  • 00:38:03
    mythology what we've got on our hands
  • 00:38:08
    that I say if you want to find what it
  • 00:38:11
    means not to have it to have a society
  • 00:38:14
    without any rituals read the New York
  • 00:38:16
    Times and you'd find well the news of
  • 00:38:20
    the day young people young people who
  • 00:38:24
    don't know how to behave in a civilized
  • 00:38:26
    society after imagine 50% of the crime
  • 00:38:31
    is by young people in their 20s and
  • 00:38:33
    early 30s that just behave like
  • 00:38:35
    barbarians Society has provided them no
  • 00:38:38
    rituals and not which they become
  • 00:38:40
    members there's been a reduction or
  • 00:38:41
    reduction reduction of ritual we're even
  • 00:38:44
    in the Roman Catholic Church my god
  • 00:38:46
    they've translated the mass out of the
  • 00:38:49
    ritual language into a language that has
  • 00:38:51
    a lot of domestic associations so that I
  • 00:38:55
    mean every time now that I read the
  • 00:39:01
    Latin of and the mass I get that pitch
  • 00:39:07
    again that it's supposed to give a
  • 00:39:08
    language that throws you out of the
  • 00:39:11
    field of your domesticity you know the
  • 00:39:13
    altar was turned so that the priest is
  • 00:39:15
    Bacchus to you and with him you address
  • 00:39:17
    yourself outward like that now they've
  • 00:39:19
    turned the altar around looks like
  • 00:39:21
    junior child
  • 00:39:22
    to the child giving a demonstration and
  • 00:39:25
    under homey and cozy and they play
  • 00:39:27
    guitar they play guitar listen they've
  • 00:39:30
    gotten what what the function of a
  • 00:39:32
    ritual is is to pitch you out not to rap
  • 00:39:37
    you back in where you have been all the
  • 00:39:39
    time so ritual that once conveyed an
  • 00:39:43
    inner reality is now merely form and
  • 00:39:47
    that's true in in in in the rituals of
  • 00:39:50
    society there and the personal rituals
  • 00:39:51
    of marriage and religion well with
  • 00:39:54
    respect to ritual it must be kept alive
  • 00:39:57
    and so much of our ritual is dead it's
  • 00:40:02
    extremely interesting to read of the
  • 00:40:05
    primitive elementary cultures how the
  • 00:40:10
    folktales the myths they are
  • 00:40:13
    transforming all the time in terms of
  • 00:40:16
    the circumstances of those people people
  • 00:40:19
    move from an area well let's say the
  • 00:40:24
    vegetation is the main support out into
  • 00:40:29
    the plains
  • 00:40:29
    most of our Plains Indians in the period
  • 00:40:33
    of the horse-riding Indians you know had
  • 00:40:36
    originally been of the Mississippian
  • 00:40:37
    culture along the Mississippi in settled
  • 00:40:41
    dwelling towns and I culturally based
  • 00:40:47
    villages and then they received a horse
  • 00:40:50
    from the Spaniards and it makes it
  • 00:40:52
    possible then to venture out and the
  • 00:40:54
    plains and handle the great hunt of the
  • 00:40:57
    the buffalo herds you see and the
  • 00:41:00
    mythology transforms from vegetation to
  • 00:41:03
    Buffalo and you can see the structure of
  • 00:41:08
    the earlier vegetation mythologies
  • 00:41:11
    under the mythologies of the the Dakota
  • 00:41:14
    Indians and the Pawnee Indians and the
  • 00:41:17
    Kiowa and so forth
  • 00:41:19
    you're saying that the environment
  • 00:41:20
    shapes the story they respond to it
  • 00:41:23
    do you see but we have a tradition that
  • 00:41:27
    comes from the 1st millennium BC
  • 00:41:30
    somewhere else and we are handling that
  • 00:41:32
    it has not turned over and
  • 00:41:34
    assimilated the qualities of our culture
  • 00:41:38
    and the new things that are possible and
  • 00:41:40
    the new vision of the universe it must
  • 00:41:42
    be kept alive the only people that can
  • 00:41:45
    keep it alive are artists of our day
  • 00:41:47
    time to another that the artist is his
  • 00:41:50
    function is the mythologize ation of the
  • 00:41:54
    environment and the world artist being
  • 00:41:56
    the poet the musician author exactly
  • 00:41:59
    writer yes I think we've had a couple of
  • 00:42:03
    greats in the recent times I think of
  • 00:42:06
    James Joyce's as such a revealer of the
  • 00:42:11
    mysteries of growing up and becoming a
  • 00:42:13
    human being and for me he and Thomas
  • 00:42:18
    Mann were my my principal gurus who
  • 00:42:21
    might say as I was trying to shape my
  • 00:42:23
    own life I think in the visual arts
  • 00:42:26
    there were two men whose work seemed to
  • 00:42:29
    me to handle mythological themes in a
  • 00:42:31
    marvelous way and one was Paul clay and
  • 00:42:33
    the other Picasso these two men really
  • 00:42:37
    knew what they were doing all the way I
  • 00:42:38
    think and had a great versatility in
  • 00:42:41
    their revelations you know artists are
  • 00:42:45
    the mythmakers of our day the myths
  • 00:42:49
    makers in earlier days over the counter
  • 00:42:51
    parts of our artists they do the
  • 00:42:53
    paintings on the walls to form the
  • 00:42:55
    rituals there's an old romantic idea in
  • 00:42:59
    German does folk dish that I'd say that
  • 00:43:02
    the poetry of the traditional cultures
  • 00:43:06
    and the ideas come out of the folk they
  • 00:43:08
    do not they come out of an elite
  • 00:43:10
    experience the experience of people
  • 00:43:13
    particularly gifted whose is open to the
  • 00:43:16
    song of the universe and that they speak
  • 00:43:19
    to the folk and there is their answer
  • 00:43:22
    from the folk which is then received
  • 00:43:23
    there's an interaction but the first
  • 00:43:25
    impulse comes from above not from below
  • 00:43:28
    in the shaping of folk traditions so who
  • 00:43:31
    would have been in these early
  • 00:43:33
    elementary cultures as you call them the
  • 00:43:35
    equivalent of the poet's today the
  • 00:43:37
    shamans the shaman is the person who has
  • 00:43:40
    been his late childhood early
  • 00:43:43
    you could be male or female had a
  • 00:43:47
    overwhelming psychological experience
  • 00:43:49
    that turns them totally inward the whole
  • 00:43:54
    unconscious has opened up and they've
  • 00:43:56
    fallen into it and it's been described
  • 00:43:59
    many many times and it occurs all the
  • 00:44:01
    way from Siberia right through the
  • 00:44:05
    Americas down to Tierra del Fuego it's a
  • 00:44:08
    kind of schizophrenic crack-up the
  • 00:44:09
    shaman experience what kind of
  • 00:44:11
    experience dying and resurrecting you
  • 00:44:15
    know being on the brink of death and
  • 00:44:18
    coming back and actually experience the
  • 00:44:19
    death experience people who have very
  • 00:44:22
    deep dreams dream is a great source of
  • 00:44:25
    the spirit and then people who in the
  • 00:44:29
    woods have had mystical encounters let
  • 00:44:32
    me let me try to be specific about it
  • 00:44:34
    the shaman becomes some person in in a
  • 00:44:37
    society who is drawn by experience from
  • 00:44:40
    the normal world into the world of the
  • 00:44:42
    gifted that's right
  • 00:44:44
    most of us think of shaman as a magician
  • 00:44:46
    but they play a much more important role
  • 00:44:48
    than simply being up oh no they play the
  • 00:44:50
    role that the priesthood plays in are
  • 00:44:52
    these are the priests the world that
  • 00:44:55
    does a major difference as I see it
  • 00:44:57
    between a shaman and a priest a priest
  • 00:45:00
    is a functionary of a social sort the
  • 00:45:05
    society worships certain deities in a
  • 00:45:09
    certain way and the priest becomes
  • 00:45:10
    ordained as a functionary to carry on
  • 00:45:13
    that ritual and the deity that to whom
  • 00:45:17
    he is devoted there's a deity that was
  • 00:45:19
    there before he came along the shamans
  • 00:45:22
    powers are symbolized in familiars
  • 00:45:26
    deities of his own personal experience
  • 00:45:28
    and his authority comes out of a
  • 00:45:32
    psychological experience not a social
  • 00:45:35
    ordination do you understand what I mean
  • 00:45:37
    and the one who had this psychological
  • 00:45:39
    experience this traumatic experience
  • 00:45:41
    this ecstasy would become the
  • 00:45:44
    interpreter for others of things not
  • 00:45:46
    seen
  • 00:45:46
    he would become the interpreters of a
  • 00:45:48
    heritage of mythological
  • 00:45:51
    life you might say yes and ecstasy was a
  • 00:45:54
    part of it very often there's no money
  • 00:45:56
    it is the trance dance for example in
  • 00:45:59
    the in in the Bushmen society now this
  • 00:46:02
    there's a fantastic example of something
  • 00:46:06
    the little Bushmen groups the whole life
  • 00:46:10
    is one of great great tension the male
  • 00:46:13
    and female sexes are gonna be saying in
  • 00:46:17
    a disciplined way separate the the men
  • 00:46:20
    have a certain field of concerns their
  • 00:46:22
    weapons and the poisons of the hunt and
  • 00:46:24
    all that and the women have a certain
  • 00:46:26
    field of concern the bringing up the
  • 00:46:28
    children the nourishing of the children
  • 00:46:29
    so forth and so on
  • 00:46:31
    only in the dance did the two come
  • 00:46:33
    together and they come together this way
  • 00:46:36
    the witness sit in a circle or a little
  • 00:46:39
    group and they then become the center
  • 00:46:42
    around which the men danced and they
  • 00:46:44
    controlled the dance and what goes on
  • 00:46:46
    with the men through their own singing
  • 00:46:48
    and beating of the thighs what's the
  • 00:46:51
    significance of that that the woman is
  • 00:46:53
    controlling the dead well the woman is
  • 00:46:55
    life and the man is the servant of life
  • 00:46:57
    and and during the course of this
  • 00:47:01
    certainly circling it's a very tense
  • 00:47:03
    style of movement the men have as
  • 00:47:05
    assembly that one of the mill pass out
  • 00:47:09
    he's in trance now and this is a
  • 00:47:12
    description of an experience
  • 00:47:16
    when people sing I dance I enter the
  • 00:47:21
    earth I go in at a place like a place
  • 00:47:23
    where people drink water I travel a long
  • 00:47:26
    way very far when I emerge I'm already
  • 00:47:29
    climbing I'm climbing threads I climb
  • 00:47:32
    one and leave it then I climb another
  • 00:47:35
    one then I leave it and I climb another
  • 00:47:38
    when you arrive at God's place you make
  • 00:47:42
    yourself small you come in small to
  • 00:47:45
    God's place you do what you have to do
  • 00:47:48
    there then you return to where everyone
  • 00:47:50
    is you come and tongue and tongue and
  • 00:47:53
    finally you enter your body again all
  • 00:47:55
    the people who have stayed behind are
  • 00:47:57
    waiting for you they fear you you enter
  • 00:48:00
    into the earth and you return to enter
  • 00:48:03
    the skin of your body and you say that
  • 00:48:07
    is the sound of your return to your body
  • 00:48:09
    then you begin to sing the tune masters
  • 00:48:15
    are there around they take hold of your
  • 00:48:17
    head and blow about the sides of your
  • 00:48:19
    face this is how you manage to be alive
  • 00:48:21
    again friends if they don't do that to
  • 00:48:25
    you you die you just die on our dead
  • 00:48:28
    friends this is what it does this and
  • 00:48:30
    poom that I do listen to them hear that
  • 00:48:33
    I dance
  • 00:48:35
    [Music]
  • 00:48:41
    this is an actual experience of transit
  • 00:48:44
    from the earth to through the realm of
  • 00:48:46
    mythological images to to God or to the
  • 00:48:51
    seat of the of power it becomes
  • 00:48:55
    something of the other mind of us it is
  • 00:48:57
    exactly the other mind and and the way
  • 00:49:00
    God is imaged God is transcendent of
  • 00:49:03
    finally of anything like a name of God
  • 00:49:06
    as the Hindus say beyond names and forms
  • 00:49:10
    beyond a Maru pond beyond names and
  • 00:49:12
    forms no tongue has soiled it no word
  • 00:49:17
    has reached it but Joe can can
  • 00:49:20
    Westerners grasp this kind of mystical
  • 00:49:23
    trance theological experience it does
  • 00:49:26
    transcend theology at least theology
  • 00:49:28
    behind I mean if you're locked to the
  • 00:49:30
    image of God in a culture where a
  • 00:49:32
    science determines your perceptions of
  • 00:49:35
    reality how can you experience this
  • 00:49:37
    ultimate ground that the shamans talk
  • 00:49:40
    about the best example I know in our
  • 00:49:45
    literature is that beautiful book by
  • 00:49:47
    John Neihart called Black Elk speaks
  • 00:49:49
    Black Elk was lack out was a young soo
  • 00:49:54
    or decoders are also called
  • 00:49:56
    boy around nine years old before the
  • 00:50:02
    American cavalry had encountered the
  • 00:50:04
    Sioux they were the great people of the
  • 00:50:06
    plains and this boy became sick his
  • 00:50:11
    psychologically sick his family I'm
  • 00:50:15
    telling the typical shaman story the
  • 00:50:19
    child begins to tremble and is
  • 00:50:22
    immobilized and the family is terribly
  • 00:50:25
    concerned about it and they send for a
  • 00:50:28
    shaman who had had the expression his
  • 00:50:30
    own you to come as a psychoanalyst you
  • 00:50:33
    might say and pull the youngster out of
  • 00:50:35
    but instead of relieving him of the
  • 00:50:39
    deities he is adapting him to the
  • 00:50:43
    deities and the deities to himself you
  • 00:50:45
    might say this it's a different problem
  • 00:50:48
    from that of psychoanalysis
  • 00:50:50
    well you remember I think this Nietzsche
  • 00:50:54
    who said be careful less than casting
  • 00:50:56
    out your devil you cast out the best
  • 00:50:58
    thing that's in you here the deities who
  • 00:51:02
    have been encountered the powers let's
  • 00:51:04
    call them are retained the connection is
  • 00:51:09
    retained it's not broken and and these
  • 00:51:13
    men then become the spiritual advisors
  • 00:51:16
    and gift givers of their people well
  • 00:51:18
    what happened with this young boy he was
  • 00:51:21
    about nine years old was he had a vision
  • 00:51:24
    and the vision is described and it's a
  • 00:51:26
    vision prophetic of the terrible future
  • 00:51:29
    that his tribe was to have but it also
  • 00:51:32
    spoke of the possible positive aspects
  • 00:51:35
    of it it was a vision of what he called
  • 00:51:38
    the hoop of his nation realizing that it
  • 00:51:41
    was one of many hoops which is something
  • 00:51:45
    that we have it all learned well enough
  • 00:51:47
    yet and the cooperation of all the hoops
  • 00:51:50
    of all the nations and grand processions
  • 00:51:53
    and so forth but more than that it was a
  • 00:51:55
    experience of himself as going through
  • 00:51:59
    the realms of spiritual imagery that
  • 00:52:03
    were of his culture and assimilating
  • 00:52:06
    their import and it comes to one great
  • 00:52:09
    statement which for me is a key
  • 00:52:11
    statement to the understanding of myth
  • 00:52:13
    and symbols he says I saw myself on the
  • 00:52:17
    central mountain of the world the
  • 00:52:20
    highest place and I had a vision because
  • 00:52:24
    I was seeing in a sacred manner of the
  • 00:52:27
    world and the sacred central mountain
  • 00:52:33
    was Harney Peak in South Dakota and then
  • 00:52:38
    he says but the central mountain is
  • 00:52:40
    everywhere that is a real mythological
  • 00:52:44
    realization why
  • 00:52:47
    it distinguishes between the local cult
  • 00:52:51
    image
  • 00:52:52
    Hani peak and it's connotation the
  • 00:52:58
    center of the world the center of that
  • 00:53:01
    of the world is the hub of the universe
  • 00:53:03
    Axis Mundi you know the central part
  • 00:53:06
    pole star around which all revolves the
  • 00:53:09
    central point of the world is the point
  • 00:53:12
    where stillness and movement are
  • 00:53:14
    together movement is time stillness is
  • 00:53:17
    eternity realizing the relationship of
  • 00:53:20
    the temporal moment to the eternal that
  • 00:53:24
    moment but forever is the sense of life
  • 00:53:28
    realizing how there was this moment in
  • 00:53:31
    your life is actually a moment of
  • 00:53:34
    eternity and the experience of the
  • 00:53:36
    eternal aspect of what you're doing in
  • 00:53:39
    the temporal experience is the
  • 00:53:43
    mythological experience and he had it so
  • 00:53:46
    that is the central mountain of the
  • 00:53:48
    world Jerusalem Rome Banaras Lhasa
  • 00:53:53
    Mexico City you know Mexico City
  • 00:53:58
    Jerusalem is symbolic of a spiritual
  • 00:54:01
    principle as the center of the world
  • 00:54:04
    so this little Indian was saying there
  • 00:54:10
    is a shining point where all lines
  • 00:54:12
    intersect that's exactly what he said he
  • 00:54:15
    was saying God has no circumference God
  • 00:54:19
    is an intelligible sphere than say a
  • 00:54:23
    sphere known to the mind
  • 00:54:25
    not to the senses whose centre is
  • 00:54:29
    everywhere and circumference nowhere and
  • 00:54:32
    the center bill is right where you're
  • 00:54:35
    sitting and the other one is right where
  • 00:54:38
    I'm sitting and each of us is a
  • 00:54:41
    manifestation of that mystery
  • 00:54:49
    [Music]
  • 00:56:32
    this program was made possible by a
  • 00:56:34
    grant from the Corporation for Public
  • 00:56:36
    Broadcasting and by this station and
  • 00:56:39
    other public television stations
  • 00:56:42
    additional funding was provided by the
  • 00:56:44
    John D and Catherine T MacArthur
  • 00:56:46
    Foundation
Tag
  • mitoloxía
  • rituais
  • animais
  • cultura antiga
  • identidade
  • xamanismo
  • Joseph Campbell
  • mentres e corpo
  • naturaleza
  • tradicións